Great Expectations: All eyes are on plans to transform southeast False Creek

into a model sustainable community, but are the lofty goals realistic?
Vancouver Courier
Sunday, January 18, 2004
Page: 1 / FRONT
Section: News
Byline: Mark Mallet
Source: Special to Vancouver Courier

Southeast False Creek isn't much to look at these days: a rusting old barge clings to life on the dilapidated
waterfront, the dreary, litter-strewn volleyball courts of "Urban Beach" cozy up to the semi-abandoned Cambie Yard,
and the odd dump truck carries loads of fill across a vacant lot.

Along a section of chain-link fence, mounted photographs of industrial scenes--the Cambie Works Yard Photographic
Project--mark the city's effort to celebrate the area's working-class heritage. But for anyone who has the misfortune
of walking along the seawall between Monk's Grill and Science World, those photographs do nothing to conceal the
fact that Southeast False Creek--located on the south side of False Creek between Main and Cambie--is, to put it
bluntly, ugly.

Luckily, all that is about to change. If all goes according to plan, Southeast False Creek will soon become a
21st-century village of environmentally friendly buildings, community vegetable patches full of chatty neighbours, and
parks that are home to actual wildlife. All this a stone's throw from downtown. By all accounts, it would be one of the
most forward-thinking urban communities in North America, a kind of beacon for the rest of the continent--and the
world--to follow. That is, if the city's planners and architects have their way.

"I don't think you'll find anywhere in the world that is trying to do as much as we are," says Ian Smith, senior planner
with Central Area Planning.

The city's vision for Southeast False Creek includes energy and water conservation strategies, permeable pavement
to allow rainwater to soak into the ground, sites for urban agriculture and more bike lanes than a velodrome.

As for the buildings themselves, the city expects all developments on the site to conform to Silver LEED (Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design), a U.S.-based green building certification system that emphasizes sustainable
site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

But beyond just being green, the city hopes Southeast False Creek will be a model of social sustainability, with
daycares and schools within walking distance of people's homes, a farmers' market right in the centre of things, a
park that's double the size of the city's normal requirements and a stipulation that 35 per cent of the housing units be
built for families (compared to the normal 25 per cent requirement).

So heartwarmingly idealistic is the vision for Southeast False Creek that the first version of the Official Development
Plan (ODP), released last May, used snippets of poetry to convey the dream:

"Let us concentrate our

romances
Re-unite the City and

the shore

Welcome, welcome, welcome

Remember, reflect and

remember

Celebration and the

corner store"

If the planned community becomes a reality, it would be just the latest in a string of dramatic transformations the area
has undergone.

Two hundred years ago, most of Southeast False Creek wasn't even dry land. It was a tidal marsh, home to all kinds
of wildlife, including deer, elk, beaver, geese, and salmon. In fact, the original shoreline was near what is now 1st
Avenue.

But starting in the mid 1800s, the area began to attract much of the city's heavy industry. Over the next century,
Southeast False Creek became home to sawmills, foundries, shipbuilding yards (at one time housing the largest
shipbuilding yard in the British Empire), metalworking factories, a salt distribution centre, warehouses and even a
giant garbage incinerator on the city's public works yard. Bit by bit, the old tidal marsh was filled in.

But after World War II, the area's industrial tenants began to disappear, leaving behind contaminated soil and
rundown buildings. Today, except for a handful of industries still clinging to the site, the city-owned part of Southeast
False Creek (30 of the future community's 80 acres are privately owned) sits virtually abandoned for much of the
year. Even the Molson Indy, the only real activity the area sees, will soon be a thing of the past, with the 2004 race
likely to be the last.

The idea for the latest incarnation as a model sustainable development first emerged in 1990, but it wasn't until 1999
that council put the idea into policy. Now, with the 2010 Olympics on board as the new development's first tenant, the
project has kicked into high gear. With the eyes of the world destined to focus on Vancouver six years from now, the
city that promised the "Sustainable Olympics" can't afford to fail.

"The Olympic Games has never seen an athletes' village like this," says Sam Corea, acting communications director
for Vancouver 2010. "[It's] in a sustainable community, next to a waterfront setting, so close to the downtown." And
because Vancouver 2010 has committed to economic, social and environmental sustainability as its guiding
principles, Corea sees the Olympics' involvement with Southeast False Creek as a major help "in moving the plan
forward."

Even environmental and social advocates--generally unsupportive of Vancouver's Olympic plans--agree the
Olympics are a good thing for Southeast False Creek. As John Irwin, coordinator of a coalition of environmental and
social groups involved in Southeast False Creek's planning, says, "The Olympics could bring a focus to the area that
might make it harder to sneak out of things." If the city promises a sustainable development and then fails to deliver,
"they won't look all that good."

Thanks to the 2010 deadline, construction of the Athletes' Village--which will be converted into residential housing
after the Olympics are gone--is scheduled to begin in 2007. Construction on the private sections of Southeast False
Creek (between 1st and 2nd avenues, and between Quebec and Main streets) will begin even sooner, perhaps as
early as next year.
What those buildings will look like, however, is the subject of intense debate. The first development plan described
the Southeast False Creek sustainable neighbourhood as a community that "will integrate into its urban context while
protecting and enhancing the social and economic health of its community, as well as the health of local and global
ecosystems." Sounds wonderful in theory, but what does that mean in practice?

One of the main controversies city planners and politicians have had to contend with is trying to balance park space
with residential development. The more park they provide, the fewer options they leave for what types of housing to
build. On the one hand, residents of neighbouring Mount Pleasant have been clamouring for years to have all 50 of
Southeast False Creek's public acres turned into parkland. In their eyes, not only would the city save money by not
having to clean up the area's contaminated soil to an extent acceptable for residential zoning, but the 50-acre park
would make up for the fact that their community has one of the lowest per capita park ratios in the city--less than a
third of the city's overall goal of 2.25 acres per thousand people. But Bruce Maitland, director of Vancouver's Real
Estate Services, says the cost of cleaning up the contaminated soil was hardly an issue in the decision-making
process, and that council's 1999 decision to turn a whopping 26.4 of the 50 public acres into park was purely
"political."

While at first glance it's hard to find fault with a huge urban park, the problem is that Vancouver's population is
booming. Over the past 10 years, every hour has seen another four people move to the Greater Vancouver area,
giving us an annual growth rate of about 2.6 per cent.

All those people have to live somewhere, and if a prime chunk of urban real estate is turned into a giant park, they'll
have no choice but to move further away, likely to the suburbs. A large number of them will then commute to work
every day, spending hundreds of hours a year in traffic, spewing more and more pollution into the atmosphere. All of
a sudden, a giant urban park doesn't sound so sustainable.

That's the view of Michael Larice, an assistant professor of urban design at UBC whose graduate students have just
spent an entire semester coming up with four alternative plans for Southeast False Creek. He thinks the 26.4-acre
requirement is excessive.

"That number was put into policy very early on in the project. Council took a flawed plan and actually put into policy
the number [of acres] that they had in that plan. They put the cart before the horse."

The problem, according to Larice, is that the city is simultaneously demanding 2.2 million square feet of development
and 2,500 dwelling units on the remaining city-owned land, forcing developers to build high-rise buildings, even
though low-rise and mid-rise structures are more sustainable.

"Townhouses--row houses--are incredibly sustainable," says Larice. "They're very flexible... And in terms of creating
community, [the townhouse model] is the best model by far."

Patrick Condon, a UBC professor and expert in sustainable development, agrees. "Low-rise development is
inherently more sustainable, cheaper to build, and it's easier to heat because you don't get the same kind of
convection heat loss. And it's more flexible because it lends itself to change with a much greater degree of ease."

However, if the city is to attain its goal of 2,500 dwelling units, the only way to do that with low- and mid-rise housing
would be to cut the total park area and spread the housing out. It might mean four fewer acres of park, according to
Larice. "What's the difference between 22 acres and 26 acres?" he asks, sounding exasperated. Still, it's an option
that would likely prove extremely unpopular with many nearby residents.

Current city councillor Raymond Louie, who wasn't in office when the 26.4-acre park was put into policy, is well
aware of the politics involved. "The community has spoken very clearly that it wants a sizable portion of that area to
be parkland." As a result, the city will have to create higher density on the remaining areas. "That's what we're going
to do. It's going to happen."

The size of the park is not the only controversy dogging the development. There's also the question of building
contracts, and which lucky companies will get the eventual nod from the city. Condon, for one, fears council may
sacrifice true innovation for the sake of administrative ease, handing out large parcels of land to a handful of "really
big players" instead of a variety of smaller companies. "The bigger [the companies] are, the more conservative I think
their view is" and the less likely they are to produce groundbreaking work. In other words, the more money a
company has at stake, the greater the likelihood that they'll want to stick with tried-and-true concepts.

Larice shares Condon's concern. He worries that large-scale developers may turn the area into a housing project
instead of a community, and argues the city would be better advised to create smaller parcels of land, with smaller
developers building on each one. "If you want a stable community that actually functions as a neighbourhood within a
city, rather than a superblock development, you're going to have to go that way."

According to Larice, not only would the small-parcel development model create a more liveable, innovative
community, it would provide economic benefits. "Each of these parcels could be built by a different builder and an
architect... You're spreading out the economic opportunity over a wider variety of players."

City planner Ian Smith is not convinced. He recently visited some new developments in Amsterdam, in which each
block had been parceled out to as many as eight to 10 different developers. Although he encountered some
innovative projects, he also noted that having so many developers made it difficult to coordinate. "We certainly agree
that there is some benefit to breaking down the scale, allowing more people to participate, encouraging more
innovative things," but the city also has to be practical. In Amsterdam, he says, "They've come to realize that maybe
about four [developers] per block is manageable."

In a project like Southeast False Creek, it's almost inevitable that reality and idealism will clash. The bottom line,
according to Smith and fellow planner Karis Hiebert, is that the neighbourhood must become a model that future
developments can actually follow. And that means they need to create something that is not only socially and
environmentally sustainable, but also economically viable. "[Southeast False Creek] is an important piece of the
puzzle in moving forward," says Hiebert. "Not just to change what's done on this site, but for all of Vancouver."

Whatever form Southeast False Creek eventually takes, one thing is certain: thanks to the Olympics, it will be
scrutinized perhaps more than any other residential development project in the city's history. As Smith and Hiebert
readily admit, when you promise a "model sustainable development," you're practically demanding that scrutiny.

Asked if they're worried that the reality might not live up to expectations, Hiebert explains that it's simply a matter of
aiming as high as they can, then hoping that the political will is there to see the plans through. "We want to be bold
enough in our aspirations that even if... we're slightly below that, it's still going to be a very innovative piece of work."

Fortunately for Hiebert and Smith, almost everyone agrees that creating a model sustainable urban community is a
good idea in principle. And Vancouver, perhaps more than any other city in North America, is perfectly positioned to
make that vision a reality. After all, the city is teeming with sustainability experts, and with projects like SFU's
UniverCity, an on-campus sustainable community; Surrey's East Clayton, a huge environmental step up from
conventional subdivisions; and UBC's planned sustainability research centre on Great Northern Way, the city is fast
becoming a world-renowned centre of sustainable urban development.

With any luck, 10 years from now Southeast False Creek will have added to that reputation.

---

The next round of public consultations for the Southeast False Creek project is scheduled for the end of February.
For more information, check out the City of Vancouver's web site: www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/sefc, or call city planner
Karis Hiebert at 604-871-6066."

Illustration:
• Colour Photo: Photo Dan Toulgoet / (Southeast False Creek.)
• Photo: Photo Dan Toulgoet / PATRICK CONDON, A UBC PROFESSOR AND EXPERT IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: "Low-rise